Our week before Christmas turned to chaos as a bushfire in Wyperfeld National Park on Friday the 20th December spread closer and closer to our conservation reserve. Parks Victoria and Forest Fire Management Vic fire crews were working all day both in the air and on the ground, but it eventually reached us on Friday night after changing course fairly dramatically after a wind direction shift.
Thanks to their continued efforts throughout the hot, windy conditions, and their actions in establishing a rake hoe line (which creates a small earth break to stop the creep of fire) the burn was amazingly restricted to 7 hectares in our reserve, and luckily didn’t impact our active Malleefowl mounds. Sadly around 2000 hectares of the park was burnt, which is important habitat for Malleefowl and many other species from the threatened Mallee bird community.
A silver lining…
On Sunday a couple of fire crew members patrolling the dozer lines called us to say they’d noticed a small injured bird, which turned out to be a Malleefowl chick! We headed down to collect the chick and assess its condition. From watching many hours of the wildlife camera footage on our malleefowl mounds, we know that newly hatched chicks stumble around like drunks and receive zero care from their parents. So we checked out the little chick and confirmed it was healthy, just very young and building up its strength.
It was the first time we had seen a malleefowl chick up close and it was such a special moment! We sought advice from our good friend and foremost Australian Malleefowl expert Dr Joe Benshemesh. After having a chat with Joe, we found a perfectly suited area to release the chick on our conservation reserve, a safe distance away from the burnt area where dozers and crews would be working, and with dense ground cover and available food sources. Who knows, maybe it will make a cameo appearance on our wildlife cameras one day, we live in hope!
Michael is calling this ‘Mitch the Malleefowl Chick’… it sure was lucky!
Huge thanks
Many thanks to the keen eyes and thoughtful, compassionate nature of the crews who helped this chick survive. And a huge, heartfelt thanks to all the crews from our local CFA, Forest Fire Management Victoria and Parks Victoria who worked together to control the fire. Aircraft, dozers and ground crews were constantly on the move, and they kept us informed throughout which we really appreciated. A special shout out to the two people who found the chick, but also thoughtfully filled up one of our waterpoints for any distressed wildlife on our property.
Post-fire regeneration
Smouldering stumps and branches after the bushfire on our conservation reserve near Patchewollock.
It was confronting to walk through the burned areas, but Michael and I quickly found signs of life amongst the smouldering branches. As I peered down a burnt-out stump, my eye caught movement and I saw a gecko sheltering inside!
And I’m already hoping for positives in terms of weed control in patches of Bridal Creeper and African Lovegrass. Additionally, we were able to see a couple of extensive rabbit warrens that had been exposed from under dense vegetation and deal with them… take the wins where you can!
We’ll set up photopoints to monitor changes and do our best to assist the natural regeneration by spreading seeds and using branches to minimise erosion on the slopes. If anyone has tips or advice that they’d like to share with us we’d be happy to hear from you.
Now our fingers and toes are crossed for the remainder of summer to be uneventful and mild, and dare we also hope for a bit of rain? Yes please!
PEEK-A-BOOO!